The Sims 4 has recently released its latest Game Pack and it’s all about decorating. The Dream Home Decorator pack allows you to go into any home and transform it into something completely new.
The Sims 4 Game Packs are their mid-tier additions, with Dream Home Decorator retailing at £17.99 GBP. They are, arguably, the most mixed packs in terms of what they add. Some add new locations and events whereas others, like this one, focus on gameplay additions.
Dream Home Decorator introduces the interior decorator career, a freelance role that gives your Sim a lot of flexibility in what they do every day. For the players who love to decorate or have strong opinions on interior design, it might be the ideal pack.
For me however? I didn’t get along with it as much as I’d hoped.
GAMEPLAY
Designing rooms in The Sims is a lot of fun. There are so many possibilities, and the limitations of the room’s shape creates interesting challenges and results. What’s less fun is doing that every single day.
Maybe decorating is your favourite part, and changing the ugly default layout of pre-made houses is your true calling. But for me, the interior decorating career was just something I didn’t vibe with.
Early on in the interior decorator career, I was really excited to start decorating. It’s a whole new experience working within the confines of a budget and the likes and dislikes of NPCs. Then I did it over and over and over again.
Five days a week.
Suddenly it was no longer fun and challenging, it was just tedious. It’s a time consuming task, where in-game time freezes and you instead fast forward through real life having to spend so long on each gig.
It’s important to mention that the gig nature of the interior decorator career means you don’t actually have to work every day. You can do it as and when you want, either taking long breaks between gigs or working seven days a week. Perhaps I would have found the career less draining if I kept it to only a couple of gigs per week, but when you’re trying to gain promotions and earn money early on it doesn’t feel possible.
career
Some of the gigs you can book include entire level renovations of some of the largest mansion properties in the game. Even just selling the existing furniture is a time sink. Then, when it comes to decorate, it’s entirely possible that the styles and likes of your client are impossible to satisfy.
Perhaps the biggest kick in the teeth with the interior design job is that sometimes the client doesn’t like it. You can do everything right, hit the mark on all their likes and still get it wrong. You’re entirely at the mercy of a computer character who will even admit that you ticked every box but they don’t vibe with it.
Worst of all, when they don’t like it they don’t pay you. You spend a lot of real life hours and an entire in-game day, but at the end of it the only thing you have to show is a loss in reputation.
There are definitely fun features included with the career that add an extra layer to it. Some clients will send you letters to tell you how much they loved your work (or how much they hated it). Some even come to you based on recommendations and companies will send you furniture hoping you’ll use it in a renovation.
I also managed to get my Sims the most expensive TV on the market by accidentally adding it to my household inventory during a renovation. These features add a nice dimension to the pack and can offer a good ‘get rich quick’ start to each playthrough. I don’t, personally, think they’re enough to completely redeem the career.
As with the Get to Work pack, you send your Sim to gigs alone. I haven’t yet had this result in not being paid, so it is an option. It just kind of defeats the entire point of the pack and the career. Not to mention the renovation window for gigs is usually 9am-9pm so if you send your sim alone they’re gone for the entire day. When going with your Sim, you can usually finish all the steps by around 4pm depending on how much you had to converse with the clients to fill out their interests.
ITEMS
In contrast to my opinions on the interior decorator career, I adore the new items added in this pack. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the additions are furniture item. For me, every last one of them hits it out of the park. They’re sleek, modern and tasteful which makes them great additions to any home built in The Sims.
There are a few new styles of products added too. You can get countertop integrated hobs instead of a full oven, and there is a whole selection of modular furniture you can add a visible clothing rack too.
The new items all vibe together perfectly and I imagine a house decorated with them all would look stunning. Most importantly though, they combine well with what already exists in the game. A lot of the new furniture pieces will fit into most spaces in The Sims without looking garish or out of place.
On top of the furniture the pack also adds a really nice range of Create-a-Sim items. Some of the new clothing pieces have quickly become favourites of mine, especially the boilersuit. As with the furniture, a lot of the new clothing pieces are tasteful and modern. It gives your Sim an aesthetic I would describe as ‘teacher’. There are fun decorator pieces too, scuffed dungarees and overalls to show how your Sim really gets mucked into their job renovating properties.
In terms of smaller Create-a-Sim accessories, the additions are limited with only a few pieces in each category. One of the new additions is a braided style though, which shows an ongoing commitment to accurate representation of Black hair. It’s just a shame EA has included this behind a paywall.
For me, the items were the saving grace of this pack. For some of the pieces I honestly think I’d consider buying the pack just to have them
SUMMARY
It might seem like I didn’t enjoy a lot from this pack, but this isn’t really the case. I jumped in head first to an area of the game I usually spend very little time on. In return, I quickly burnt myself out.
That I didn’t gel with that side of it doesn’t mean that I think it’s bad or even that I’d never go back to it in a future game. All it means is that, for right now, it clashed with my personal preferences and play style.
In addition, I really do mean it when I say I’d consider this pack for the furniture alone, especially when you consider how often the Origin store has sales and bundle opportunities for the expansions.
The Dream Home Decorator pack turns the attention to a mechanic within the game that some people thrive on. We’ve all seen the incredible builds and designs people make in The Sims 4 and I can only imagine those players will flourish with this pack. When it comes to me, my houses never look that impressive and, to be honest, probably end up a bit gaudy a lot of the time.
While I was always happy with the rooms I designed, it’s also true that I have an acquired taste with these things. I struggled to meet the needs of others rather than designing something I liked.
Overall, I think the Dream Home Decorator pack successfully adds a new dimension to The Sims 4. As we hope all expansions do, it positively reflects the portion of the community who love all things build mode.
Featured Image Credit: EA/Maxis
Reviewed on PC with a code provided by PR.